Callander is adopting a new tool to help spread its municipal words—it’s called VoyentAlert!, and it’s coming this Friday, July 8. VoyentAlert! is an app you can download to your phone, and once installed, will provide emergency updates to residents.
It’s very similar to the Amber Alerts one receives, although these notifications will be specific to Callander. For instance, if a wild winter storm closes Main, residents with the app will receive a notification, and be able to plan a detour. If a forest fire is fast approaching, or Callander Creek floods again, notice will arrive via your cell phone.
See: Early morning flood rips down Callander Creek
VoyentAlert! is produced by Ice Soft Technologies, a Calgary based company that provides the app to many municipalities across the country. After all, as they explain on their website, “citizens rely on you to provide the most accurate, up-to-date, and relevant information about the issues and incidents that impact their daily lives,” with the “you” referring to the municipality.
Callander’s mayor, Robb Noon, is looking forward to implementing the app. “We’ll be able to contact everyone who signs up on the list in case of emergencies” he said, “and the message will be delivered to everybody.”
“We’ll also be able to use it for other announcements, like FunFest,” the mayor said. Rest assured, the municipality does not plan to overuse the app, and plan to go easy on the messages. At its next meeting on July 26th, council will discuss the appropriate use of the technology and include those parameters in the town’s communications policy.
Callander’s senior municipal director, Ashley Bilodeau, mentioned that after launching the app, there will be options for residents to sign up for different types of announcements. For instance, you will receive the emergency responses upon installing the app, but if you want additional announcements that might concern garbage pick up delays, or that it’s about time to register your float for FunFest, you can opt into those as well.
“All of the public service announcements” could be at your fingers, “but we don’t want to use it too much so that people opt out,” Noon said. “We’ll come up with the right policy to make sure that we’re not bugging people” who sign up.
“But it’s going to be a great tool for us to help get messages out there” to the people, Noon explained.
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
